A variable’s name should be independent of its type

https://dave.cheney.net/2019/01/29/a-variables-name-should-be-independent-of-its-type by

The name of a variable should describe its contents, not the type of the contents. Consider this example:

var usersMap map[string]*User

What are some good properties of this declaration? We can see that it’s a map, and it has something to do with the *User type, so that’s probably good. But usersMapis a map and Go, being a statically typed language, won’t let us accidentally use a map where a different type is required, so the Map suffix as a safety precaution is redundant.

Now, consider what happens if we declare other variables using this pattern:

Now we have three map type variables in scope, usersMap, companiesMap, and productsMap, all mapping strings to different struct types. We know they are maps, and we also know that their declarations prevent us from using one in place of another—​the compiler will throw an error if we try to use companiesMap where the code is expecting a map[string]*User. In this situation it’s clear that the Map suffix does not improve the clarity of the code, its just extra boilerplate to type.

My suggestion is avoid any suffix that resembles the type of the variable. Said another way, if users isn’t descriptive enough, then usersMap won’t be either.

This advice also applies to function parameters. For example:

type Config struct { //}

func WriteConfig(w io.Writer, config *Config)

Naming the *Config parameter config is redundant. We know it’s a pointer to a Config, it says so right there in the declaration. Instead consider if conf will do, or maybe just c if the lifetime of the variable is short enough.

This advice is more than just a desire for brevity. If there is more that one *Config in scope at any one time, calling them config1 and config2 is less descriptive than calling them original and updated . The latter are less likely to be accidentally transposed—something the compiler won’t catch—while the former differ only in a one character suffix.

Finally, don’t let package names steal good variable names. The name of an imported identifier includes its package name. For example the Context type in the context package will be known as context.Context when imported into another package . This makes it impossible to use context as a variable or type, unless of course you rename the import, but that’s throwing good after bad. This is why the local declaration for context.Context types is traditionally ctx. eg.

func WriteLog(ctx context.Context, message string)

You shouldn’t name your variables after their types for the same reason you wouldn’t name your pets “dog” or “cat”. You shouldn’t include the name of your type in the name of your variable for the same reason.